


Mothers

by rebel_wren



Category: Star Wars: Rebels
Genre: Gen, Mother-Son Relationship, Motherhood, Post-Star Wars: A New Hope, Prisoner of War, honestly i dont really know what this is but i got an idea at 11pm and now im here
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-08
Updated: 2019-09-08
Packaged: 2020-10-12 18:51:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,911
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20569190
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rebel_wren/pseuds/rebel_wren
Summary: Hera is captured, and gets herself free in an interesting way, and later finds herself returning the favor to the young woman who helped her.





	Mothers

**Author's Note:**

> I feel that this is a little different than what I usually write, but I hope you enjoy it regardless!

Hera had gotten herself captured again.

She didn’t think the Imperials, on a more backwater base, had realized who they had captured yet. They’d identified her as being with the Rebellion, but Hera was sure they didn’t know that she was General Hera Syndulla.

For now, at least. She didn’t have much time to escape before they connected the dots and moved her somewhere with more security.

Hera certainly wasn’t going to help them: she hadn’t really said a word to the Imperials since they captured her, only speaking Twi’leki, so they simply assumed that was all she knew. And fortunately for her, Twi’leki wasn’t taught in Imperial Academies, as Sabine had once explained. They thought that Twi’leks were below other species, just slaves, and any Twi’lek worth speaking to would know Basic.

That angered Hera, and prompted her to begin teaching it to Sabine, but it didn’t mean she would never use it to her advantage.

There was an Imperial woman, dressed in an officer’s uniform with tightly pulled back hair at the console just outside of Hera’s cell, which she could only see through the laser wall that functioned as the door. She’d been watching the woman for a while now- she was monitoring security and occasionally pressing buttons on the console, though Hera hadn’t yet figured out for what. 

The woman moved from behind the podium for a moment to check at a knob on the side, and Hera’s eyes widened.

“You’re pregnant.”

The woman didn’t look up from the console, continuing to work. “So you  _ do _ speak Basic.”

“Is it your first?”

The woman continued to tap at the console, as if Hera hadn’t said anything.

“I remember when I was pregnant. Just a couple years ago,” Hera mused, resting her hands over her stomach.

The woman still didn’t look up, but she stopped the movement of her hands.

“It’s scary to have a baby in all of this. Especially when you’re a part of it.”

The woman still didn’t move or say anything.

“My partner was killed before I could even tell him.”

The woman closed her eyes, but kept her head down.

“My son was born just around when the first Death Star was destroyed. Do you remember that? It wasn’t long ago.”

The woman opened her eyes and seemed to be staring intensely at the console in front of her, though at what Hera couldn’t tell.

“He’s sweet. Reminds me a lot of his father sometimes,” Hera said. Her voice stayed calm and casual, almost as if she was simply talking to herself. “His name is Jacen. I named him after my baby brother, who died when he was very young.”

The woman began rapidly tapping at her console, even faster than she was originally working.

“My mother died shortly after. It’s really hard to lose your mother. Do you know what that’s like?”

The woman continued to near-frantically work at the buttons.

“I don’t want my son to go through that.”

The laser wall blinked out at the entrance of the cell, and the woman approached Hera.

“The security cams in the western corridor have malfunctioned, and are down,” the woman said quickly. Her gaze was intense as she met Hera’s eyes. “It’s unfortunate that the Western corridor is the one that leads straight to the hangar, where a shuttle is scheduled to leave in seventeen minutes. Someone could hijack it and leave around the right time, and no one would suspect anything, especially if they somehow knew that the clearance code for takeoff was RB-1014.”

A smile slowly grew on Hera’s face.

“Thank you,” she said, with the surprise and genuineness in her voice being real as it could be.

The woman simply turned around.

“Hurry.”

She started to walk back towards her console, but Hera gently took her arm.

“Come with me. We’ll pick up your family, too. When the Empire finds out about this, it won’t be good. The Rebellion will take care of you, I can make sure of that.”

“You’ll torture me.”

“We’re not who they say we are.”

The woman locked eyes with her, and Hera saw her former self- spirited, purposeful, but young and afraid. Neither woman said anything, for what felt like a good, long while.

The comm in the console buzzed. “Lieutenant, what’s going on? Cams in the whole west corridor is out! Are you having security issues down there?”

The woman stared at Hera for a few more moments before pulling her arm from Hera’s grasp and walking over to the console and leaning into the comm.

“Just some technical problems, I’m working on them.”

“Get. It. Fixed. Or you know what I’ll have to do.”

The comm buzzed out, and the woman sighed, then looked to Hera.

“You won’t torture me.”

“Never. You have my word.”

“And what will your word mean to your generals?”

“More than you know.”

The woman’s nostrils flared as she looked around the room, breathing slowly. She shook her head.

“No. I- I hate the Empire. I had no choice, but I’m stuck here. They could kill me for this already, you have to leave. Now.”

Hera nodded slowly. “If you contact us, I’ll vouch for you. I promise, I won’t forget this.”

The woman nodded. “I’ll keep it in mind.”

Hera smiled at her, and took off down the hallway.

* * *

“Look Mama!”

Jacen held up a picture. It was crudely drawn with the big crayons that Sabine had given him, but Hera could clearly tell what it was. Figures that clearly represented Zeb, herself, Jacen, Sabine and Chopper were on the page. They all (well, not Chopper) had smiles on their faces, and Hera found herself mirroring the image.

“Jacen, that looks great! Did you show Sabine?”

“Yeah.”

Hera put a hand out and Jacen gave her the picture. Hera looked over the figures. In a better universe, Jacen would’ve been able to add Kanan and Ezra. But they didn’t live in that universe.

“What do you say we put this on the fridge?”

Jacen beamed and nodded eagerly, and he was practically bouncing as Hera stood up and walked into the kitchen, with Jacen following her. The  _ Ghost _ ’s fridge for years never had things on it, there was never a reason, but since Jacen had begun drawing, the surface had quickly begun populated with art. Most of his drawings were of his family, and they always made Hera smile when she went into the kitchen for an early cup of caf. 

She took a magnet from the drawer next to it and held the picture up on an empty spot towards the top.

“How about there?”

Jacen nodded for a moment, as if deeply considering her proposition. “Good,” he said slowly. Hera chuckled and stuck the picture there, and then stepped back and crouched down to Jacen.

“I love you, dear,” she said to him with a smile.

“Love you too!” Jacen said, hugging her. Hera laughed and hugged him back, holding on until her comm rang. She pulled back. Her comm shouldn’t have been ringing, she’d been promised a day to be with her son, and Mon Mothma insisted she have that day off. Her mind immediately jumped to an emergency.

“Sorry, sweetheart, I have to answer this.”

Jacen nodded- unfortunately, he understood Hera couldn’t always spend as much time with him as either of them liked, and it broke Hera’s heart a little bit. She stepped out into the hallway and lifted the comm up.

“Is something wrong?”

“General, there’s an Imperial woman here. We have her in custody, but she’s asking for you.”

Hera frowned. “Did she say why?”

“She said she saved your life a few months ago.”

Hera’s mouth dropped slightly. “She- you didn’t do anything to her, right?”

“No, we’re just holding her right now. She’s… pregnant. Are you going to come down?”

Hera swallowed hard. “I’ll be right there.”

Hera went back to the kitchen, where Jacen was admiring the collage of his artwork on the fridge. Hera smiled at him.

“I have to go do something, but I’ll be right back, okay?”

“Okay,” Jacen said, though he seemed a little sad about it.

“Uncle Zeb is here if you need anything,” Hera said, and she walked down the hallway again, pounding on Zeb’s door as she walked by.

“I gotta run somewhere, Zeb, take care of Jacen!”

She didn’t stop to hear if he responded, and walked down the ramp of the  _ Ghost _ , through the hangar to the cells where Imperial prisoners were kept. Many of the cells were empty, as the Rebellion didn’t tend to hold very many prisoners, there wasn’t a need unless it was someone of a high rank, and torture and interrogation was not a preferred method for their operations (though unfortunately, Hera was aware it happened, even though she strongly disagreed). At the end of the hall, the guard who had called was standing in front of one of the cells.

Hera reached it, and looked inside to see the same Imperial woman she remembered. She was visibly much further along in her pregnancy now than when Hera had first (and last) seen her. But she wasn’t the same well-kept Imperial who had released her from her cell. She still had the uniform, but it was dirty and unbuttoned and loose. Her hair wasn’t in the typical tight Imperial bun, but loose and messy.

Hera pressed the button to open the cell, and the woman looked up at her, and she seemed flooded with relief. Hera smiled and stepped into the cell, and sat down next to her.

“You didn’t tell me you were a general,” the woman said. Her voice was soft, it had lost the edge and accent she first had.

“If I had, would you have let me go?”

The woman hesitated. “It’s hard to say.”

She looked down at the floor, her hands resting over her abdomen. “I’m not here to join you. That’s not what I want. But I can’t go back, and if they find me-”

Hera put a hand on her shoulder. “I understand. We can take care of you, I promise.”

The woman looked at her gratefully. “Thank you.”

“Is there anyone we should call about you?” Hera asked gently. “Your parents? Partner?”

“My parents won’t want anything to do with me after I threw away a future with the Empire. And my husband was killed by rebels months ago,” the woman said, looking up at Hera. “Before I could even tell him about the baby.”

Hera stiffened, and swallowed a small lump in her throat.

“We- we have places for you to go, where we can protect you. They’ll want to monitor your communications, to make sure you don’t try and contact the Empire-”

“I’ve got no one to contact.”

“I know. But just for security, you understand.”

The woman nodded, and then wiped at her eyes. “This is more than I deserve. The Empire… well, it wouldn’t be the same the other way around.”

“That’s why we’re fighting.”

“They tell a lot of lies about all of you. A  _ lot _ . I- I have some intel, if you need some. Not much, but it’s something.”

Hera smiled at her. “We can take care of all of that. But let’s get you out of this cell first. I owe you one.”

The woman chuckled, and took Hera’s hand as they stood up together.


End file.
